Hi everyone.
For a variety of reasons, I'm taking down a couple of trees in my backyard. They're not huge by any means--8"-9" diameter trunks. I plan on keeping the trunks and using some of it for turning and some of it for flatwork. And no, I'm not doing the work myself--the trees are a good 25-30' tall and pose some interesting problems for the arborist.
Anyway, I've never made lumber from a tree before. I think the general advice for people doing flatwork is that anything above the first large branch is garbage, since the large limbs at the bottom cause a lot of stresses in the wood. That's fine, I'm not looking for a huge haul here.
But turners on the other hand seem to love crotch pieces. So I'm wondering if you guys could help me figure out how much of the tree to save (the arborist will take away the rest of it). If possible, take these pics and mark the top and bottom of the save.
Thanks.